After weeks of feeling like I was in the emotional equivalent of a washing machine, the last two days have been a welcome change. Still feeling like an anxious puddle of crap, but gradually, I am gaining control over myself and learning to let go of the things I can’t control and it’s amazing.
Happiness is a skill.
It isn’t “found”, given, or bestowed. It is, in some fashions, earned, in the sense that you have to work on it and that it requires effort.
Two days ago, I put on a red plastic bracelet I had sitting around and decided to take the “no-complaint challenge.” The concept is simple – no complaining without suggesting a solution, or you switch sides on the bracelet and start the 21 days over. Yet within a day, I had decided to expand it to something I needed even more -
THE ANT APT CHALLENGE.
ANT is a shorthand for Automatic Negative Thought (like I am fat, I am ugly, I am not worthy, he doesn’t like me, I can’t do this). APT is a shorthand for … you guessed it … Automatic Positive Thought. (I am capable of this, I can do this, keep going.)
The bracelet concept is the same. If you have an ANT, catch it, stop it, correct it, and switch bracelet sides.
AND IT IS WORKING.
That’s right. A three dollar bracelet is making me a happier, more fulfilled person.
WHO FREAKING KNEW?
